schemas - an organized pattern of thought or action that one constructs to interpret some aspect of one's experience
operations - schema based on internal meantl activities
Organization - combine existing schemes into new more complex intellectual
structures
adaption - tendency to adjust demands of the environment
assimilation - incorporate new experiences into
existing schemes
accommodation - modifying existing schemes to incorporate/adapt
to new experiences
Stages of Development
- 4 stages - sensorimotor
- preoperational
- concrete operational,
- formal operational
- invariant sequence
- qualitative changes in cognitive functioning
- large amount of individual differences in terms of age a child enters
and exits stages
- age ranges listed are simply rough approximations of the norm
Transitions -
sensorimotor - start with reflexes
- develop imitative behaviors
- development of object permanence
- development of symbolic knowledge
preoperational - starts with symbolic knowledge
- language increases
- pretend play
- egocentric
- class inclusion (hierarchies)
- failure to conserve
- failure to understand reversibility
concrete operational - learn conservation tasks
- cause-effect relationships with concrete object
- decrease in egocentrism
- understand reversibility
- failure to understand abstractions
formal operational - learn to think abstractly
- hypothetico-deductive reasoning
Sensorimotor Stage
- Learning occurs through motor activity and sensory experiences
- Substages show a general progression from use of reflexes to repetition
of reflexes that produce pleasure incorporation of behavior with the environment
that become more complex (exact repetition, similar repetition, symbolic
thought)
- reflexes (0-1 month)
- innate, behaviors that
babies are born with
- primary circular reactions (1-4 months)
- centered on own body
- bring reflexes under control
and repeat behaviors that bring pleasure (sucking thumb, making noises)
- secondary circular reactions (4-8 months)
- outside ones body
- hitting or kick things
to get them to make noise
- coordination of secondary schemes (8-12 months)
- coordinate 2 or more actions
to achieve simple objective
- tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months)
- devises new methods of
acting on objects to reproduce interesting results
- inventing new means by mental combination (18-24
months)
- inner experimentation
- solve simple problems on mental or symbolic level without having to rely
on trial and error
Imitation
- 8-12 months child begins to imitate novel responses
Shows evidence of intentionality
(Patty-Cake, Peek-A-Boo)
- 18-24 months child will reproduce behavior in the absence of a model
(Deferred Imitation)
Can construct mental symbols
Object Permanence
- concept that objects exist even when out of sight
- emerge late in 1st yr of life
- fully developed until 2nd yr of life
- Tested through the A not B task
- 1-4 months
will not look for covered
object
- 4-8 months
will uncover partially covered
object
- 8-12 months
will uncover completely
covered object in a single position
will uncover initial placement
even when object was moved to location B in sight of the child
- 12-18 months
will look in position B when displacement is done
in the sight of the child
- 18-24 months
will find the object even when displacement is done
when child is not looking
Transition from Sensorimotor stage to Preoperational Stage is
the development of Symbolic Thought which is demonstrated by the
use of language and the development of the object concept
Preoperational Stage - 2-7 years of age
Symbolic functioning is demonstrated by the use of language/pretend
play
Deloache - Scale Model Experiment
- Child is shown in a model where a toy Snoopy doll is hidden in that
actual room.
- Child is asked to find the doll in the real room (retrieval 1)
- Child is asked to find the doll in the model (retrieval 2)
- 2½ - child lacks dual representation
- can find the doll in the model but not in the
real room
- 3 - child can use the model to represent the real
room and can find the doll in both the model and the real room
- If task is changed so that a picture is shown to
the child of where the doll is in the real room (instead of the model),
- 2½ - Child will
find doll in model
- 2 - Child will not find
doll in model
Preconceptual Reasoning
- Animism - attributing lifelike properties to inanimate objects
- Precausal/transductive reasoning - if 2 events occur at the same
time, the child will assume that one event causes the other
- Egocentrism - view world from own perspective and assumes everyone
shares their
perspective
- difficulty taking other's perspective
- 3 mountain task
3-4 year olds report that
others see what they see
6-9 year olds begin to realize
doll's perspective is different but difficulty determining what the doll
would see
9-10 year olds can determine
doll's perspective accurately
Classification: the way and the ability of a child to group objects
- Perceptual based grouping
- grouped together because they look alike (color)
- Thematic Relation
-grouped together because they often function together
or complement each other (Doctor-Nurse, Cereal-Spoon)
- Taxonomic grouping
- grouped together because they share a common higher
order grouping
- requires grouping based on an abstract principle
(fruits - apple, pear, orange)
Early Classification - end of 1st year group on a Perceptual level
- 14 months can identify items of a common context Thematic
- 2 yrs of age match on both Thematic and Taxonomic
- Preschoolers (4 years)- tendency to use horizontal relations in Taxonomic
classification
- School-aged (7 years) - tendency to use vertical relations in Taxonomic
classification
Class Inclusion -
- A child is shown 10 wooden beads (7 painted red and 3 painted blue)
- child is asked if all are wooden beads - child correctly report yes
- child is asked if there are more red beads or white beads- child
correctly reports red
- child is asked if there are more red beads or wooden beads- incorrectly
reports red
- not until the end of this stage that child learns to use subordinate
and superordinate classifications to solve problem correctly
Conservation - lack of ability to conserve
- Centration - focus on one aspect of a situation and neglect others
- Irreversibility
- State vs Transformation
- Appearance vs Reality
- young children (3 year olds) will report what
the object appears to be
- have difficult understanding how object can be
something other than what it appears to be
- older children (6 year olds) will report what
the object really is and that it only appears to be something different
Transition from Preoperational Stage to Concrete Operational
Stage is the development of Logical Thought which is demonstrated
by the ability to conserve - understanding of concepts of reversibility,
...
Concrete Operational Stage - ages 7-11
Children in this stage demonstrate logical thought evidenced by their
ability to perform the conservation tasks however, they lack the use of
abstract thought.
Conservation Tasks - can decenter and focus on 2 aspects of the problem
- can display reversibility
Horizontal Decalage- idea that there is a progression through which children are able to successfully complete the conservation tasks (different ages for different tasks)
Relational Logic -
Seriation
Classification - subordinate and superordinate levels
Transitive Inferences A>B and B>C then A>C
Transition from Concrete Operational to the Formal Operational
Stage is the development of Abstract Thought which is demonstrated
by the use of deductive reasoning and abstract concepts
Formal Operational Stage (11+)
Children begin to think abstractly, can imagine how things would work in a hypothetical world.
Mental activities are performed on ideas and propositions (no longer
need concrete objects)
- Hypothetical reasoning
- Deductive reasoning
- Generation of hypotheses
- Scientific Thinking
- Pendulum problem - vary 1 factor at a time to
solve problem
2 types of egocentrism still seen
- imaginary audience
- personal fable
Counters to Piaget
Object Permanence
- Rene Baillargeon
- Adele Diamond
Conservation tasks -
- language
Contributions of Piaget
- founded cognitive development
- children are active explorer of their environment
- explained the process of development
- provide a broad sequence of development
Challenges
- underestimate developing minds
- competence vs performance
- too little atention to social and cultural influences
Vygotsky
Children are born with elementary functions
- attention
- sensation
- perception
- memory
Elementary functions get transformed into higher mental functions through
experience and interactions with people (adults and children) who are more
advanced.
Zone of Proximal Development
- the difference between what a child learner can accomplish independently
and what s/he can accomplish with guidance and encouragement of a more
skilled partner
Scaffolding
Guided Participation
Comparisons between Piaget and Vygotsky
Piaget
- Cognitive Development is mostly universal
- children pass through stages
- Cognitive development stems from independent exploration
- Child is active participant in learning process
Vygotsky -
- Cognitive Development varies across cultures
- Cognitive growth stems from social interactions
- Child is active participant in learning process
Piaget on Education
- Tailor education to child's readiness to learn
- Be sensitive to individual differences
- Promote discovery-based education
Vygotsky on Education
- Cooperative Learning tasks
- peer tutoring
Piaget on Language
- words are symbols used to represent objects
- language displays what the child knows
- language follows cognitive development
- through pretend play and egocentric speech, children learn effective
communication
Vygotsky on Language
- language is a social process
- children will talk to themselves more as they try to solve problems
- this tends to lead to clues from more advanced
learners
- as child learns the skills, speech becomes more
private
- eventually becoming inner speech